Drugs in sport: the mud gets stickier

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Australia is in danger of being regarded as a nation of sporting cheats.

When 13 phials said to contain "turtle jelly" were confiscated at Sydney Airport from a member of the Chinese swimming team in 1998 and turned out to contain a manufactured human growth hormone, the derision of the Australian sporting community was as loud as the calls for swift and exacting punishment. The Chinese insistence that the only performance enhancing substances they used were natural tonics including slug paste, gelatinised turtle's blood and donkey-skin extract were rightly treated with scepticism. It seems the same level of doubt should now attend the self-injection by Australian sportsmen and women of "vitamins and supplements". Indeed, the Australian Olympic Committee yesterday issued a directive banning self-injection by athletes, except for those requiring insulin or adrenaline to treat medical conditions.

Australia's good, although not unblemished, reputation as a centre of drug-free sport is now under a serious cloud. Revelations that sprint cyclist Sean Eadie had been suspected of importing a banned substance from the United States five years ago prompted the AOC on Monday to suspend the naming of the remainder of the Australian team for the Athens Olympics. The committee has ordered customs checks on all prospective competitors. Eadie has denied the allegations, saying he was unaware until last weekend of the seizure of the tablets. This is despite the fact that Australian Customs advised him in writing twice about the seizure and subsequent destruction of the anterior pituitary peptides sent by post to Eadie from San Diego. The allegations against Eadie come hard on the bans for doping imposed on cyclist Mark French, the suspension pending investigation of cyclist Jobie Dajka and the dumping from the Athens squad of weightlifter Caroline Pileggi for refusing a drugs test.

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The AOC is properly concerned about the potential depth of the drugs problem among elite sportsmen and women in Australia. The nation has in some ways reached a critical juncture in its sporting history on this issue. The AOC must quickly get to the bottom of a problem that threatens to taint by association the entire Australian Olympic community and tarnish Australia's reputation for fair, unassisted competition. At the same time, it is crucial that sportsmen and women accused of drug misuse are afforded the normal legal protection that all citizens enjoy. The burden of proof remains with the accusers. This should not become a witch-hunt, but a search for solutions to a clearly developing problem in Australian sport. Medals won with the assistance of drugs have no value. Australia's long and proud sporting history, especially in Olympic competition, is far more precious. It would be a sorry outcome if that reputation was indelibly scarred by the actions of a few miscreants.